


Read the Room, Edie

by UnapologeticallyMeatwad



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Crimson Flower Route, During Timeskip (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Enemies to Friends, Ferdinand Von Aegir has Opinions!, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:35:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24476596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnapologeticallyMeatwad/pseuds/UnapologeticallyMeatwad
Summary: Three years have passed since Byleth died at the Siege of Garreg Mach and at this point it feels regressive to be housed at Garreg Mach after all this time. “It’s a strategic advantage,” Edelgard will snip whenever challenged by one of her officers, and then she’ll turn and whisper into Hubert’s ear, “Have you heard anything?”“No, Your Majesty," Hubert will whisper back. "No reports of a teal haired mercenary, and no reports of Ferdinand’s return.”
Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir & Edelgard von Hresvelg
Kudos: 6





	Read the Room, Edie

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off a Prompts doc my best friend shared with me a few years ago. I have a lot of ongoing projects I’m working on right now but I do love the idea of sitting down to write something unexpected every now and then.
> 
> So this is where “I would not touch a thing he touched.” took me.

Three years have passed since Byleth died at the Siege of Garreg Mach and at this point it feels regressive to be housed at Garreg Mach after all this time. “ _ It’s a strategic advantage, _ ” Edelgard will snip whenever challenged by one of her officers, and then she’ll turn and whisper into Hubert’s ear, “ _ Have you heard anything?” _

“ _ No, Your Majesty. No reports of a teal haired mercenary, and no reports of Ferdinand’s return.” _

Ferdinand lives in Adrestia now; he abandoned the army immediately after Byleth passed, swearing to Edelgard that there must be a  _ coup de grace _ that be achieved via diplomacy as opposed to this incredibly bloody war that has already destroyed so much. It struck Edelgard hard, but she can only wish for a world where Ferdinand is correct. But these people want blood. They want to reclaim her revolution as their own, and purge this world of heretics.

Garreg Mach is easy to justify as the all-powerful centerpiece to her stratagem, but really… Garreg Mach is  _ home _ . She hopes that the ghosts of her siblings don’t ever find out that truth when digging through her nightmares, but Garreg Mach is where she met her wonderful Eagles. She never expected this reality, the one where friends reach their hands out for Edelgard herself.

“Master Seals, come get your Master Seals here!” Caspar shouts from atop a stone platform he must have dragged to the center of the Dueling Grounds. 

Edelgard raises an eyebrow. 

Caspar, ever vigilant, notices this and focuses all of his huckstering on her. “Edelgard, I’ve seen you and Professor Professorson eying that Wyvern Lord certificate.”

Edegard’s eyes narrow. While she thinks that Caspar should just snatch the Master Seal from Caspar’s hand and show it to her lovely Wyvern — who yes, is named Professor Professorson — she knows Professor Professorson would give her the sad eye, seeing how emotionally aware he is, and Edelgard feels enough guilt today.

So instead Edelgard snatches Caspar’s sword instead of the aforementioned Master Seal.

“Um,” Caspar frowns. “Actually, that’s my sword…”

Edelgard jabs the rapier through the crowd, pointing at square at the chest of the weirdo fully decked out in fencing armor, this odd duck among the other Black Eagles who are miraculously all assembled here. 

But Edelgard already knows what’s going on: orange gleams between the wire frame in the fencing mask like gemstones in the light.

“You. Get up,” Edelgard orders.

The knight does so and raises his Rapier high, screaming a heroic sort of “AAAAaaAAAAaaaAAAAAH!” as he charges her. Edelgard rolls her eyes and blocks the first blow with ease. Though she does expect this blow to drive her rapier to her chest, but the knight leans away from the blow the moment it’s blocked. Good reflexes.

The knight slashes at Edelgard’s head and she blocks that. He follows with strike to the knees, she blocks that too. For the chest, they clash and he pirouettes around her, lunging at her back. Not having time to turn around, Edelgard meets the blade with her own near her shoulder blades, pressing back hard enough to lock both blades. With his sword hooked to hers, she spins around and faces him head on.

“You fight like a White Heron Champion,” Edelgard grins and moves in as the aggressor. Though she’s not as fast as the knight, she’s certainly stronger and keeps him moving on thin ice. But soon, she grows fatigued of this charade and stabs right at the helm of the knight. He ducks, but not before her rapier slips past the wire frame and scoops the mask right off the knight’s shoulders.

Long carrot orange locks flow from the helm, catching in the sun, and flow down to the knight’s hips. 

Ferdinand’s cheeks and chin are what seem to have changed the most in the past three years. Far sharper and much more mature.

Caspar slowly claps both hands to the side of his head. “Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?”

Edelgard growls, “Was this a set-up?”

Caspar’s eyes go wide. “What?! No—”

“Yes,” Linhardt drawls from the sidelines.

Edelgard shakes her head and turns to Dorothea; though Linhardt is most certainly telling the truth, he has a tendency to say things just to make Caspar sound like a doofus. Not needing to use her words, Edelgard’s cold eyes are enough to get Dorothea to nod and sigh, “Yes. Sorry Ferdie.”

Edelgard clicks her tongue and looks back to Ferdinand. “And you found this to be the best way to re-introduce yourself?”

Ferdinand pales. “What better way for me to return than I, Ferdinand Von Aegir, proving his superiority to Emperor Edelgard at swordplay!”

“So much for that,” Edelgard grumbles, looking her Eagles over from left to right. Even Bernadetta, even  _ Hubert _ , appear to have been in on the charade. She turns on Ferdinand, hands on her hips. “Do you feel as if you need to win me over?”

Ferdinand purses his thin lips. “If you’re asking, the answer is probably No, correct?”

Edelgard sighs. “Come with me.”

Ferdinand nods and for the first time in his life, feels no need to comment and just does as he’s told. Edelgard walks him through Garreg Mach, specifically bringing him to her office.

“This is Seteth’s office!” Ferdinand squawks, before his eyes catch on the papers Edelgard is sifting through. “Wait, I — I wrote that one.”

“Yes,” Edelgard tries her best not to sound horribly agitated. She holds Ferdinand’s most recent editorial in the Enbarr Times. “I’m implementing some of this.”

“No you’re not!” Ferdinand crosses his arms.

“Hm? N-no, I — I am. Why would you…”

“I am used to disagreeing with you always, forgive me.”

Edelgard bites her lip and looks away. “Forgive me for… leading you into thinking I hated you. I, um, care about you very much, Ferdinand. I’m hoping this isn’t just a visitation…”

“No, I wish to rejoin the Black Eagle Strike Force,” Ferdinand says warmly, reaching out and touching Edelgard’s shoulder. Unfortunately, the sleeve of her Imperial gown has too puffy a shoulder for this to be effective as a comforting techniqe, but she appreciates the sentiment. “Which part are you implementing?” he asks.

“Public education, though I don’t know how to do any of that,” Edelgard sighs. She despises needing to admit her weaknesses. “I want you to understand something about me, Ferdinand. I… I rushed into this war.”

Ferdinand nods. He could go on a lecture, but refrains. Obviously he has strong feelings about this, and Edelgard is indeed impressed by his ability to… just not. 

“I… have an illness,” Edelgard says. Though she is positive that sharing her true story with Byleth irrevocably helped her heal and grow into the stronger Edelgard she is today, she still fears making others feel too much sadness for her. She wants her friends to be happy. “It means I don’t get to live as long as others, and because of that I haven’t been permitted to take the time it requires to be as thoughtful as you are.”

Ferdinand nods again. “Do… do the others know?”

“Hubert obviously and…” Edelgard thinks, trying to remember who knows and who doesn’t. 

“Dorothea…” She told Dorothea late at night after the woman crowded into Edelgard’s room, happening to overhear one of her many night terrors.

“Bernadetta…” She told Bernadetta while giving ol’ Bernie a much needed pep talk, trying to make it clear that she suffers too, that she’s human and it’s not healthy for Bernadetta to put such a flawed human being on a pedestal as an excuse to trash herself.

“Petra…” She told Petra during pragmatic conversation about the relationship with Adrestia and Brigid, and what is to come.

“Lindhardt…” Linhardt actually told  _ her _ about her problem, having done enough analysis to draw a serious conclusion.

“...and Caspar,” Edelgard finishes. Caspar was told a light version of the truth. He was beating himself up over not being as strong as Edelgard which at this point, is quite frankly impossible, and the only way she figured she could relieve his worries was to be honest with him about her Twin Crests and the advantage they give her.

“So just me?” Ferdinand says. “Oh. The Professor?”

Edelgard frowns. “First one I told.”

Ferdinand squeezes Edelgard’s shoulder tighter. This time, she feels his fingers push hard enough into the fabric that they poke up against her bone. “We’ll find them.”

Edelgard offers a small smile. “I believe so too. Ferdinand… so you intend on staying?”

Ferdinand playfully raises an eyebrow. “If I have proved my superiority to you in some fashion today, Edelgard, perhaps it is not by proficiency in sword, but in my ability to read the room.”

Edelgard blinks.

Ferdinand sighs with an agitation so similar to her own. “Yes, I’m staying.”

Edelgard smiles and does something she hasn’t in a long time; she hugs Ferdinand. Presses him tight to her body and shoves her forehead up against his shoulder. At first, he resists but soon he caves in to her touch and nuzzles closer.

Edelgard finds herself crying. She thinks Ferdinand is too, so it’s not as embarrassing. 

“Please don’t leave us again.”

“I won’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can [follow me on Twitter](https://twitter.com/IAmLordMeatwad) for tweets about my cats and fanfic, and [follow me on Insta](https://www.instagram.com/katrinajagelski/) for similar stuff. Occasionally I do live reads for my original fiction and fanfic.


End file.
